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“In 2008, we got hit really hard,” Roman Alonso of L.A.’s super-cool design collective Commune tells Letter from L.A. “Our biggest clients were retail. They went away. We suddenly had more time on our hands, so we started producing things.”

Commune is known for lending a sophisticated but laidback California vibe (picture a Facebook billionaire listening to The Eagles) to residential and commercial spaces – Oliver Peoples, Heath Ceramics, Juicy Couture – as well as to hotels like The Ace in Palm Springs. But when the economy slowed, the company began licensing talented artisans to create under the Commune name.

The first was a partnership with Matteo, a Los Angeles-based linens and bedding company. “We’d use Matteo at places like Farmshop – the groovy Brentwood food mart – “and customer after customer would ask, ‘Where can I find these?’” That led to the line of snack napkins, dinner napkins, placemats and tablecloths Matteo makes under the Commune name. In turn, that sparked creations with other artists – mostly L.A.-based – that matched the Commune mindset. As Alonso describes it, “Our products have to have a soul and need to look and feel like they’ve been touched by human beings, not made by machine.”

A good example is the Commune Blankets made by Solana Beach artisan dying house Noon Designs. The oversize blankets are woven of hemp and hand dyed with French flowers, American chestnuts and indigo. “Even the label is printed with natural wood charcoal,” Alonso says.

L.A. potters Victoria Morris and April Napier use California’s indoor-outdoor life as an inspiration for the ceramic vases and vessels now made one-by-one for Commune.

There’s even Commune flooring – a partnership with Southern California-based Exquisite Surfaces. The planks are inspired by Scandinavian textiles and made of salvaged French wagon wood. Other collaborations include limited edition products with Valerie Confections, Heath Ceramics and Culver City boxmakers Morera.

“We prefer local over global and handmade over just about anything,” Alonso says. “Above all, we like making things with talented people.”

Meanwhile, the corporate gigs still pay the bills. Commune is finishing work on a new Ace Hotel for downtown Los Angeles, a retail project for Tom’s footwear in Venice, a furniture collaboration with Environment, and a new Farmshop location in Marin County.